We are requesting funds to purchase a PerkinElmer UltraVIEW spinning disk confocal microscope for live imaging of cultured cells, tissues and embryos. The microscope will be housed in the Imaging Core Facility of the Center for Molecular Neurobiology on the West Campus of Ohio State University. Established about 25 years ago, the Center is a dynamic and interactive group of 13 faculty who have joint appointments in various Colleges. The Center has its own Director and support staff and excellent space and resources, including an adjacent mouse facility and a zebrafish core facility. The spinning disk confocal microscope purchased with this award represents critical and enabling technology that will support the research of 7 Center faculty (4 major users and 3 minor users) who are studying problems in neuroscience and cancer, and who collectively hold 9 active NIH grants totaling more than $2.4 million dollars in annual NIH funding. The Imaging Core Facility was established 6 years ago by Dr. Anthony Brown (the PI of this proposal) with funds from an NIH P30 Institutional Center Core Grant. The facility consists of a Leica TCS SL single-point scanning confocal microscope and a Zeiss Axiophot epifluorescence microscope with camera and software. Dr. Brown is the Director of the facility and supervises the Manager of the facility, Ms. Paula Monsma. Ms. Monsma manages al day-to-day operations, including training, user support, scheduling and equipment maintenance. Dr. Brown is a Professor in the Center for Molecular Neurobiology and an expert in live-cell imaging with more than 25 years of experience using light and electron microscopy in his research. Dr. Brown maintains an active and productive research program involving live-cell imaging of axonal transport and the cytoskeleton of nerve cells and has been funded by the NIH continuously for the past 15 years. Ms. Monsma has a Masters degree in cell biology and 15 years experience as a laboratory research assistant, including 5 years running a DNA sequencing core facility and 6 years running the Imaging Core Facility in the Center for Molecular Neurobiology. The P30 Center Core grant, which was recently renewed for another 5 years, provides 45% salary support for Ms. Monsma, enabling her to devote 2-3 days a week to her Imaging Core facility duties. In summary, this proposal leverages the expertise and resources established by our P30 Institutional Center Core Grant to acquire a critical and enabling new technology that will support the live-cell confocal imaging needs of 9 NIH-funded research projects in neuroscience and cancer. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Modern biomedical research is now critically dependent on direct observations of fluorescent molecules in living cells, tissues and organisms. This grant wil fund the purchase of an advanced state-of-the-art confocal fluorescence microscope for this purpose. The shared instrument will form part of the Imaging Core Facility in the Center for Molecular Neurobiology at Ohio State University, and it will provide vital new technological capabilities to support the research of 9 NIH-funded research projects in neuroscience and cancer.